Kenneth Shigley

As a trial attorney in Atlanta, practicing statewide in Georgia, Ken Shigley's work is focused primarily on cases of injury and death resulting from truck and bus accidents. He has served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and is on the national advisory board of the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America. He is a frequent speaker on national continuing legal education programs regarding trucking and personal injury trial practice. While practicing statewide in Georgia, he also selectively handles trials in neighboring states in compliance with each state's multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice admission rules. Interstate trucking cases usually require lawyers to take depositions in far-flung locations around the country. Easy access to the Atlanta airport is a significant logistical advantage compared to trucking lawyers in most other locations in the Southeast. It enables Mr. Shigley to fly out, take depositions in 80% of the populations centers of the continental U.S., and return home that night. Thus, only one day need be blocked out for most distant depositions, rather than two consecutive days as might be required for lawyers in most other locations in the Southeast. A 'lawyer's lawyer,' Mr. Shigley was recently elected in a competitive statewide election as Secretary of the State Bar of Georgia, which with roughly 39,000 members is the fifth largest state bar organization in the United States. This is a volunteer leadership position that does not conflict with active law practice. Over the past 45 years, most people who were elected to this position moved up to President of the State Bar within three years. Mr. Shigley’s professional peer ratings include: • “AV” (Highest rating in Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory) • 'Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine) • “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend) • Certified Civil Trial Advocate (National Board of Trial Advocacy) • Listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers Mr. Shigley has more than three decades experience as a lawyer and has completed over 120 jury trials to verdict. He has represented clients in litigation of civil cases in 30 of Georgia's judicial circuits, the United States District Courts for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Georgia and the Southern District of Florida, state courts in Alabama and Nevada, the United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States. After graduating from Emory University Law School, Mr. Shigley went home to begin his career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit, which then covered four mostly rural counties, prosecuting everything from misdemeanors to murder. When he left the DA’s office, he worked in a small town general law practice for a few years. Then he took a job with a law firm in Atlanta where for a decade he defended lawsuits for insurance companies, corporations, and state and local governments all over Georgia, eventually becoming a name partner in that firm. For the past 17 years he has focused on representing individuals and families in cases of serious injury and wrongful death. That practice gradually came to focus primarily on cases of catastrophic injury and wrongful death involving interstate motor carriers.